


Our Spirits Entangled

by CosmoKid



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempt at Humor, Battle of New York (Marvel), Bucky Barnes & Sam Wilson Friendship, Bucky Barnes Had an Emo Phase, Getting Together, Jeff Golblum References, Kilts, M/M, Modern Bucky Barnes, Nerd Bucky Barnes, Scottish Bucky Barnes, Slice of Life, Too Many Uses of The Word Ninja
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-04 23:36:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15851748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmoKid/pseuds/CosmoKid
Summary: “So you’re the guy who told Rogers that he looks like the lovechild of Adonis and Jeff Goldblum,” Tony Stark says and Bucky splutters, only now remembering it.Oh God.“You did what?” Sam asks, a positively gleeful shit-eating grin on his face. Bucky watches in horror as Sam scrambles to get his phone out of his pocket. “I have to tell Rebecca about this.”Or how Steven Rogers affects Bucky Barnes throughout his life and how Bucky royally embarasses himself when he meets him.





	Our Spirits Entangled

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fiversdream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiversdream/gifts).



> this took me a long time to figure out, but i really hope you enjoy it and i hope ive done the prompt service and thank you again for bidding on me and donating! <3

The first time Bucky learns about Captain America, he’s been dropped at his Grandma’s house and is sitting through one of her cheesy movies. His Grandma is a big woman with a strong Scottish accent and is only slightly terrifying. 

Although the slightly bit is only because he’s spent hours watching Fawlty Towers and eating egg custards with her.

She has a collection of videotapes full of God awful war-time movies, all within the same vein. She hates the gritty, ‘realistic’ ones and Bucky has to agree. The badly produced ones are just so much more entertaining. He’s probably watched at least forty of them with her in his young life, but somehow, this is the first time he’s watched one about the ‘World’s First Superhero’. 

It’s _interesting._ It follows the life of Captain America from a young age to the end of World War Two and the actor change after the serum is so jarring that even eight-year-old Bucky notices it.

His Grandma is less than impressed, spending most of the first act complaining about Captain America’s Mother not sounding Irish enough. He doesn’t know what to make of that so he goes back to smashing his toy dinosaurs together and pays no mind to it.

**

The next time Captain America comes up, Bucky is 12-years-old and doodling on his desk. He’d use paper, but his notepad was confiscated after he started mapping out a flying car instead of finishing his work.

His teacher gives up on whatever he was trying to do a few minutes later and loaded up a Captain America presentation. Bucky doesn’t really care.

He pays no attention to it at all, occasionally fading into listening before just giving up again. Some girl behind him says the presentation is a beat-for-beat remake of the Captain America movie from seven years ago and someone else says that their Dad says that it’s a shame to the country that the movie lost out to the stupid dinosaur movie at the box office. He nearly turns around to defend it, but he doesn’t actually care enough about this lesson.

Although he does start drawing a Spinosaurus on his desk rather than the flying car. He can’t quite figure out how big the wings should be.

The only real thing he learns from the lesson is that Captain America’s real name is Steve Rogers and that Steve Rogers has pretty eyes. 

**

When he’s in Freshman year, his school has a Captain America week which Bucky does not engage with at all because really, it’s more of a ‘fuck yeah America week’.  
He’s threatened with detention for calling it that, but it’s exactly what it is.

Bucky doesn’t know much about Captain America, but he feels like Steve Rogers wouldn’t appreciate the school being decked out with flags and fake guns. But then again, Steve Rogers is dead and really, what does Bucky know? He’s a dinosaur nerd already in the mathletes even though he’s skipped a grade and all his teammates are at least junior years. Wars throughout history don’t interest him at all and neither do superheroes. 

Robert Bakker is his hero, not some dude in a cape.

Although Captain America is really pretty and there’s a guy in his social studies class who looks quite a bit like him and Bucky feels a lot of… _things_ towards both.

**

He finds out that those _things_ he was feeling was attraction four years later, which is nice to know.

Apart from the fact that it’s 2005 and homosexuality was only decriminalized two years ago, and when two guys moved in together in their neighborhood, they were subject to so much hatred that they packed up within twenty-one days. 

His little sister is cool with it, but he’s not sure anyone else would be.

Plus, he’s already the weird kid that skipped a grade. He doesn’t need to announce something else that would lead to more bullying.

It’s why he decides to skip out on even trying to ask a guy to prom and just asks one of the girls in his AP biology class. Her name is Dorothy ‘call me Dot’ Fawkes and she moved from Brooklyn to Bedford, Iowa a year ago.

At first, she wants to do a Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter thing, and he immediately knows he has to dissuade her because one, that is so cliché and two, his Grandma would kill him if he doesn’t wear a kilt to prom. 

She’s had it picked out since the day he was born; there’s no getting out of it.

He’s not opposed to wearing a kilt. He’s worn one a couple of times before, at his fifth birthday party, his elementary school prom, and at his Aunt Euna’s third wedding. His Grandma didn’t even bother replacing the photo of Euna and her husband in the hallway, just pasting the new husband’s head over the old one’s, but she did spend two weeks readjusting the kilt to make sure it fit Bucky perfectly. 

It will happen again, he’s resigned to it.

Convincing Dot of that is a different story, especially when she sees that the kilt is red since it would ‘clash’ with her bright red hair.

His Grandma tells Dot that it’s, and he quotes, “balderdash, young lady. My Alastair had hair as bright as a carrot and he looked just charming in his kilt,” and Dot doesn’t argue. _No one_ argues with his Grandma. 

He apologizes to her later, but he’s secretly glad that he’s gotten out of the Steve and Peggy theme. He doesn’t even know what a Captain America themed suit would be. All he can think is an American flag suit or tie and maybe a shield.

The only other thing he could think of would be an old-school army theme, but even that is unappealing. 

Plus a Captain America theme doesn’t make sense for him considering Bucky’s Mom is a Romanian immigrant and his Dad’s parents immigrated from Scotland. He’s like a third American at best. He’s also heard Dot’s British accent and it’s like a bad version of a stereotypical British accent and probably a disservice to Peggy Carter. 

So they go to Prom in unmatching outfits, but his Grandma is pleased so it’s more of a win than a loss. He never wants to displease that woman.

Dot looks great in an indigo ballgown that matches her eyes and Bucky wears a black tux down to the waist where it’s replaced with a kilt, and it’s a very nice kilt. He skips on the sporran to his Grandma’s dismay so he appeases her with black knee-high socks and brogues. The outfit mostly works other than the hair which is a little My Chemical Romance to be prom-suitable and a little too Fall Out Boy to be ultra-formal.

His fringe is probably louder than the kilt, which is why he vetoes bringing out that particular photo album at every family dinner and every family gathering. He never manages to get anywhere with that veto anyway because he has a little sister called Becca who is the devil incarnate and far too persuasive.

**

The next time he hears about Captain America, he’s barely even awake.

It’s 2011, Bucky’s in his last year double majoring in Biology and Geology after taking a gap year after high school and dropping out for a year after his second year, and he’s been far too sleep-deprived for four years now. Between balancing double majors, two jobs, and work experience, Bucky is just about ready to be eaten by the giant shark he’s writing this paper on. 

He’s in the library since the electricity in his apartment cut out and he can’t call his landlord at 5:01 AM to fix it. His paper is due in like four hours and Bucky then has a class on Earth structure and its history. It’s going to be a long day. 

Of course, it happens to be the guy next to him who starts playing a YouTube video. Bucky doesn’t even have the energy to glare at him.

And he doesn’t even get a burst of energy when someone yells, “Oh my God, that’s Captain America!”

Said burst probably should have come then and yet it didn’t. He’s man enough at 23 to admit that when he and Becca were teens, they had simultaneous phases when they’d fantasize about Captain America. The guy was just really attractive and seemed like a Gentleman, the kind of guy who would take you dancing and for dinner as a first date and only kiss your cheek. He just seems like a stand-up guy. 

Unfortunately, he’s just not enough of a stand-up guy to compare with the supposed extinction of Megalodon Sharks that Bucky is currently arguing against because he likes to torture himself.

The paper is temporarily nicknamed _Schrödinger's Giant Fucking Shark._

There’s a press conference a month or two later (Bucky’s double-majoring, time doesn’t exist to him) which reveals that it was, in fact, Captain America running through Times Square. Bucky has no clue how to feel about to it other than how angry he is that whoever took the video didn’t upload it until five in the goddamn morning the next day and filmed it portrait.

**

Becca texts him three hours later which he reads thirty-six hours later because Bucky has a messed up sleep schedule. It might not be healthy to sleep for twenty-seven hours straight, but at least Bucky is finally the best at something. He doesn’t know anyone else who can do it. 

It takes him another two hours or so to reply to the text. One because he’s not sure if she’s serious and ends up watching the entirety of the Steve Rogers press conference and rewatching the same part fifteen times over, and two, because he realizes that he’s meant to be on a flight home in five hours and hasn’t even packed.

He’s a mess.

That day, he learns it is possible to pack for a week away from scratch in an hour and also shower within that hour. He also learns that he’s able to run two miles with two suitcases within twenty minutes if he has coffee made within the previous hour.

He finally replies to Becca once he’s through security and is sitting in the Wendy’s in the airport. It takes him a while to formulate a response in between the shock setting in, the constant fear of coming out, and how fucking hungry he is. He positively demolishes his fries.

Becca’s heart is in the right place and her mind probably is too, but at the same time, he’d like to have a guarantee of having a nice Spring Break this time around.

Last years was… _interesting_ , but at least he got a new running partner out of it, even if the first time he met Sam, they were both in the birdhouse of the local zoo... somehow. He still doesn’t know how either of them got there. 

After a half hour of texting, Becca agrees that she won’t force the issue and Bucky doesn’t start crying in Wendy’s. He’s worked in Wendy’s before and he knows how awkward it is for the workers when a customer starts crying.

Even with that agreement, Becca’s idea comes to light on Thursday because it’s Becca and everything she suggests ends up happening. She’s got some kind of power with this kind of thing. She’s her own superhero.

It even works out exactly like she said it would. His Mom cries and hugs him, and his Grandma tells him she’ll make him a new rainbow kilt and asks if he needs help making a Grindr account. It’s an emotional experience and there are tears all around, even as his Grandma tells him that she’s ashamed he thought she’d need Captain America coming out to be accepting. He immediately shifts the blame for that one to Becca because really, he's not a good brother.

He gets woken up the next day with ice cold water in return anyway, but he gets to end a text to Sam, saying _And that’s how I ended up letting my Grandma set up my Grindr profile_ so overall, it’s a good experience.

And he’s now in an ever-growing group of people who can say that Captain America helped them to come out.

**

There’s never been a moment in his life where he expected to have the chance to tell Captain America that he’s the lovechild of Adonis and Jurassic Park Jeff Goldblum and that Bucky would love to climb him like a tree. Or that if he had the chance, he’d actually say it out loud. 

Granted, he is suffering from blood loss so he has an excuse. 

Not that it’s ever going to hold up if any of his friends or God forbid family finds out. He’ll never live it down, ever. It’ll be brought up at _every_ family gathering for the rest of time, as in the remaining years in the extensive life of the universe. One day, he’ll co-haunt a house with them and still be reminded of it.

Hopefully, no one should find out because his family is back in Iowa and Sam is hopefully safe and not fleeing and fighting aliens right now like Bucky is. 

All he wanted was to buy a milkshake and enjoy his rare day off. Instead, he’s hiding out in the basement of a small convention center while everyone around him is screaming.

“What the fudge is going on?” an elderly woman crouching next to him asks and the lack of a swearword makes Bucky pause. His own Grandma swears like a motherfucking sailor so this is brand new. 

“Uh, there are aliens attacking New York,” he says as he attempts to breathe properly. He’s only now processing his own words. “Speaking of which, are there any weapons we can use to defend against the aliens?”

“Sir, we are at the Convention for the Elderly Knitting Pacifists. I’m offended on behalf of every person here that you think we would have weapons,” one of the men across the room snaps and glares at him. 

Bucky blinks. _Of course._

“Uh, Sir, I appreciate that but there are… there are things out there with guns built into their arms who would really like to kill us all and I’m sure there’s something in here that can maybe defend against them,” he says hesitantly, trying not to offend anyone. The guy still makes an offended noise. “You said you’re knitters, right? Have you got any needles?”

“Who do you think we are? Laurie fudging Strode?” the woman next to him asks and Bucky just shrugs.

“Uh no?” he asks. This really isn’t going to plan. He should have just gotten a McDonald's milkshake and not travel across the city to get one from one specific coffee shop. He wouldn’t be in this situation if he could just resist the temptation of the milkshake.

“No, he’s right. We need some kind of defense against those things,” a younger woman says from across the road. He nods to her. 

After some (read: a lot of) murmuring and rustling of bags, Bucky finds a pair of knitting needles being thrust into his hands. Some other guy takes charge of ordering people around and Bucky just follows his orders still feeling like he’s in a trance. He ends up next to the door with the other two people under 40, including the girl from earlier, in the room and an old guy who could probably rival Dwayne Johnson in terms of muscles and would be a good match for his Grandma. 

There are many seconds of awkward silence between them all following it. There are around thirty people in the room and all he can hear is breathing until the girl next to him whispers, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with D.”

He deadpans, “Is it door?” 

“Wow, you’re so good at this game,” she says with a grin and nudges him. She raises her eyebrows. “Your turn.”

“I spy with my little eye something beginning with,” he starts, glancing around the room with narrowed eyes, finally deciding on, “A.”

She hums in response and looks around the room. “Abdomen?”

He cocks his head to the side, “No.”

“Accordion?” she guesses.

He raises his eyebrows and looks around the room. He has to do a double take when he actually sees an accordion the room even if it’s not his word. He shakes his head, still staring at it. That might be the first time he’s seen an accordion in person.

“Apricot?”

“No?”

“Apple?”

“Nope.”

“Ankle?”

“Not even close.”

“Accountant?”

He blinks. “Accountant?”

“What?” she asks and shrugs. “There might be an accountant here.”

“I’m a retired accountant,” one of the women behind them volunteers and Bucky just sighs. Things are not going well for him today.

“Okay then,” he says. This is surreal. “Still not the word.”

“Alligator,” the girl says and Bucky blinks again.

“Now you’re just being ridiculous,” he jokes.

“I’m from Florida, we have alligators everywhere,” she defends and he just nods. He has no idea what’s going on. “Okay, what is it? I give up.”

He grins, “Argyle knitting pattern.”

“Ooh, that’s my favorite!” one of the men behind them says in an excited tone and Bucky’s grin just grows wider as the girl splutters. 

“I’m sorry, alligator is ridiculous, but Argos knitting pattern is just fine? What even is that?” she questions and glares at him. She looks so mad.

“What? It’s a popular knitting pattern,” he shrugs and she just continues to glare at him. “Your turn.”

She huffs before glaring around the room. “I spy with my little eye something beginning with H.”

He nods and takes a long look around the room before something barrels straight through the closed door and he screams, “Alien!”

“That doesn’t start with H,” someone says behind him, but Bucky has no time to reply as he stabs one of his needles into the aliens back, narrowly missing behind shot at.

The alien crumples and Bucky has to yank the needle out. He looks up to a swarm of aliens in the room. Oh God. 

He kicks at one alien as he attempts to dive the way out of another. There’s too many. He stabs in every direction, feeling like a failed ninja and someone about to die. 

There are screams all around him. He feels so helpless. Everything is too much. 

His needle finds purchase in something and he tries to twist it in the wound. He wants to do damage. He needs to. He’s twisting his entire body around to avoid a claw when a blast knocks him back. He flies into a cupboard, smashing his head against it.

Everything is numb.

A sharp pain erupts from his left arm. He coughs, glaring down at it. It’s a mess of blood and torn skin. He wants to throw up at the sight of it. 

He swallows down the vomit and forces himself to his feet. He needs to keep fighting.

Clenching his eyes shut, he takes a second to balance himself and scans the room. His eyes widen when he sees an alien cornering one of the elderly women who’s trembling on the ground. 

Without thinking, he barrels into the alien, needles first. His arm screams in pain as he rolls on the floor with the alien. He stabs into it, repeatedly, feeling like a villain in a slasher movie. 

Another bang sounds out as Bucky tries not to throw up. He clambers off the alien, clutching at his arm. There’s no stopping the blood loss. 

He looks up and pushes his sweaty hair out of his face. Something red, white, and blue flies above his head. He blinks. 

Whatever it is flies over his head again, knocking aliens over like bowling pins, as something else red, white, and blue flies around the room in a flurry.

He has to cover his mouth as more vomit rises in his throat. His heart is beating his ears. He can’t breathe.

“That’s Captain America,” someone says from somewhere. He looks around the room, but his eyes keep blinking. He can’t focus on anything.

He watches in awe as the figure flies around the room, taking out more and more aliens until there’s just none left. He feels like he’s hallucinating as he leans against the wall. 

Someone yells, “He saved my life” and someone else yells something else. He can’t process any of it. It’s like he’s not even there.

It is Captain America though; he recognizes the voice. He’s talking to someone called Stark. He blinks, the room coming into focus again. 

“Okay, the nearest first aid station is half a mile away. I can get him there,” Captain America says and Bucky feels like everyone staring at him. They must be talking about him. His brow furrows. He glances down at this arm where everyone else seems to be lucky, just happy the aliens seemed to have Stormtrooper aim.

“What about the rest of us? Why does he get special treatment?” someone asks and Bucky thinks it might be the guy who had a go at him earlier. 

“He’s dying, Ronald!” the elderly woman next to him yells. 

Bucky blinks. “Am I? When was that decided?”

“You’ve lost a lot of blood,” the woman tells him quietly and he nods. Okay then. 

“Look, I’ll get him to the station. Your best plan would be to barricade the door until it’s safe to come out,” Captain America says in an authoritative tone and he feels someone push him toward the superhero. He stumbles forward and then his weight is being supported by Captain fucking America. This is so surreal he might just be in a Salvador Dali painting.

He’s lead up the stairs as the world goes in and out of focus. They’re halfway down the street when his brain unwisely decides he should say something.

After coughing, he says, “You know, your eyes are really blue and really uh pretty, and like, like you look like the uh the lovechild of Adonis and uh Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, but _not_ Lost World Goldblum. Really, like I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to climb you like a tree,” and then he passes out in Captain America’s arms.

**

He wakes up to Sam’s face in front of him which makes him jump back in the bed.

“You’re awake!” Sam announces and Bucky just nods, unsure of himself. He appears to be in a hospital bed. “Finally, I can yell at you! What the hell were you thinking, man?”

“What was I thinking when?” he asks with a furrowed brow. He glances around, trying to make sense of everything. He’s never been in a private hospital room before; he’s not even had health insurance in years.

“When you decided to fight aliens like you’re damn Schwarzenegger!” Sam exclaims, but he looks terrified. He’s never seen Sam look so worried.

Before he can defend himself and explain that the fighting aliens thing wasn’t really a choice and more of just not wanting death that much, the door swings open and Tony Stark walks in.

His brain just about breaks at that point. It gets even worse when he realizes Tony Stark is being followed by Steve Rogers.

“So you’re the guy who told Rogers that he looks like the lovechild of Adonis and Jeff Goldblum,” Tony Stark says and Bucky splutters, only now remembering it. _Oh God._

“You did what?” Sam asks, a positively gleeful shit-eating grin on his face. Bucky watches in horror as Sam scrambles to get his phone out of his pocket. “I have to tell Rebecca about this.”

“Since when do you and Becca text?” he asks, knowing he won’t be able to stop Sam. He’s resigned to another mortifying family dinner. 

“Since you decided to adopt a parrot in both of our names last Christmas,” Sam says with a pointed look. 

“You like birds!” he defends. Sam just glares at him monetarily before looking down at his phone and continuing to text. Bucky sighs. “How did you even know I was here?” 

“Your Mom asked me to come take care of you,” Sam tells him which makes his eyes widen.

“Mom’s here?” he asks and at this point, his eyes must be as wide as the Grand Canyon. This is not good, at all.

“Well, airplanes don’t have permission to land in New York until at least tomorrow, but she’ll be on the first plane here with Rebecca and your Grandma,” Sam tells him. 

Bucky blinks. _Fuck._ This is really not good. He pushes himself up, trying to get out of the bed so he can hide in the closet some more and avoid his Grandma’s wrath. “I need to get the fuck out of here right now.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening. Your arm still needs some looking at so you can just lie back down right about now,” Tony Stark tells him with raised eyebrows and Bucky finds himself lying back down even though his instincts are screaming at him to escape. There’s a part of him that’s still a Stark fanboy apparently.

“Surely it can’t be that bad,” Steve says in a soft voice. Bucky snorts; it definitely can. 

“Oh man, you have not met his Grandma,” Sam says and the asshole is smirking. He’s enjoying this way too much. “I’m terrified of all of Scotland on her behalf.”

“Okay, you are not allowed to be scared of a whole country because of my Grandma,” he tells Sam who just raises his eyebrows. “But yeah, she’s terrifying. I am so dead.”

“She’s going to embroider your Jeff Goldblum line on a pillow, dude. I can’t wait to have more embarrassing things than that Pete Wentz in a skirt photo of you,” Sam tells him. He rolls his eyes, but he can feel himself blushing. Sometimes he hates his friends.

“Peter Wentz in a what? I need to see this right now,” Tony says and Bucky has to wonder if Tony goddamn Stark has more important things to do than look at embarrassing photos of him. Steve sends him an apologetic look and Bucky smiles. There’s a jittery feeling in his stomach. 

“It’s a kilt,” he mumbles, trying to distract himself from it. He doesn’t know if this feeling is awe or just… well, Steve Rogers is a very attractive man and Bucky is a very gay man.

“Where were you when you wore that?” Tony asks him once he’s finished laughing at it with Sam. He looks very amused.

“Senior prom,” he admits. He knows had bad he looks in the photo. The outfit is fine, but it doesn’t go with that hair. _Nothing_ goes with that hair. “My date was cropped out of the image.”

“How did she feel about the kilt?” Tony questions, looking genuinely curious. Bucky has no idea how this is his life.

“She was a little thrown at first, but she was fine with it once my Grandma forcefully reassured her that it was fine,” he explains in a hesitant voice and Tony hums before his phone beeps. Bucky stares at him, not expecting Tony Stark to still be using cell phones like the rest of them. 

“What?” Tony almost barks down the phone. Sam waggles his eyebrows at Bucky who just sighs. “Pepper, come on. Okay, fine, I’ll meet you by the back entrance.”

“Iron Man too busy for us regular civilians?” Sam asks with a smirk on his face. 

“You got it,” Tony says and makes a finger guns motion. Bucky’s taken aback, not expecting Tony Stark to be that lame. “I’ll catch up with you later, Capsicle.” 

And with that, Tony Stark leaves his room with the doors swinging wildly. He must genuinely be in a surrealist painting at this point.

“So that’s the guy paying your medical bills,” Sam remarks. Bucky blinks, staring at Sam. He had to have heard him wrong. “Don’t say anything, Barnes, you know you can’t afford them.”

Sam’s right. Bucky knows he’s right, but Bucky Barnes is stubborn. “Who says I can’t?”

“Your wage slips,” Sam tells him, matter of a fact. “Man, you work at a hipster coffee shop and as a cleaner in a free museum. You’re never paying anything off.”

“Don’t diss the Beanhouse, dude. It’s as good of a gig as you can get when you fundamentally disagree with the morals of pretty much every other coffee shop nearby,” he protests, but Sam’s probably not listening as he rolls his eyes like Bucky’s a complete idiot.

“And deciding to apply to a museum that is underfunded by state authorities?” Sam asks him and the only defense Bucky has isn’t a strong defense and Sam definitely already knows it, especially when Bucky sees the realization dawns on his face. “It’s because of the dinosaurs, isn’t it?”

Bucky doesn’t even try to look sheepish. Of course, he works there because of the dinosaur exhibit. He’s been obsessed with them since 1993. 

“You know, to some people, Jurassic Park is just a good movie,” Sam tells him with a straight face. Bucky shrugs which makes Sam huff and turn to Steve. “You get me, right?”

“Uh not really… what’s Jurassic Park?” Steve asks because oh yeah, that guy only woke up a year ago. He probably hasn’t watched Jurassic Park yet.

“The best movie ever,” Bucky says as Sam says “A twenty-year-old dinosaur movie.”

Sam turns to look at him with a disapproving look on his face. “Ninja T-Rex.”

“Your ninja T-Rex arguments are getting pretty old, Samuel,” he snarks back, wondering how many times they can have the exact same argument.

“Ninja-what now?” Steve asks in an incredulous tone. He looks very confused.

“Okay, man, so there’s this movie about a dinosaur zoo that goes super wrong and at the end, the T-Rex manages to _sneak up_ on Velociraptors and the token humans of the movie. Like no one noticed the T-Rex,” Sam says before Bucky can say anything.

“Okay,” Steve says in a confused voice. “What’s a Velociraptor?”

“It’s another dinosaur, but I doubt it would have been in uh common culture before World War Two. They were discovered in like 1923, but it was just like a claw or something. It’s nothing like the T-Rex being called the absolute warlord of the earth and a royal man-eater in I think the New York Times,” he explains with the words just flowing out of his mouth without him even processing them. “Sorry, that was really nerdy of me.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. Is the T-Rex still the uh absolute warlord of the world?” Steve asks, smiling shyly at Bucky. And there go the butterflies again. It’s hard to focus with the butterflies causing a storm in his stomach and all the thoughts of how pretty Captain America is.

“Um, uh, not exactly. I mean it’s debated, but the king of dinosaurs would have probably been the Spinosaurus or even the Carcharodontosaurus and I have definitely pronounced that thing wrong,” he manages to say without stuttering or word-vomiting too much. It’s still really nerdy and really won’t impress Steve. Not that he’s trying to impress Steve, he’s just… he has no idea what he’s trying to do. All he knows is that he’s blushing bright red. 

“Yeah no, you’re not allowed to call the Spinosaurus the king of dinosaurs after Jurassic Park 3. The Nokia ringtone in the stomach of yet another ninja dinosaur?” Sam tells him. Bucky turns to look at him rather than staring at Steve.

“Sam, buddy, if you insult my favorite dinosaur ever again, I will replace all your shoelaces with spaghetti and release live bees into your bathroom,” he says with a straight face. Sam just stares at him, looking vaguely threatened.

“Is this how all young people talk today?” Steve asks, looking perplexed, although he looks a little amused.

“Nah, just nerdy paleontology students named after previous American presidents,” Sam tells him and rolls his eyes in an exaggerated manner.

“Ah,” Steve notes and the smile that grows on his face is too beautiful for Bucky not to grin straight back.

**

Steve comes to visit him regularly after that, even when Bucky is moved to a different hospital. It takes a while for Bucky to really get over his awe of it being Captain America, but when he does, he begins to really enjoy the visits and looks forward to them. And he’s sure his family does as well.

They talk about everything and nothing all at once, with Bucky taking the time to fill in gaps of popular culture for Steve. 

The entire thing makes the white walls and clinical environment feel homier and less terrifying. His presence makes Bucky feel better when he learns he has to stay in the hospital for even longer because of a concussion and when his family can’t make it for a few days. There’s just something calming about Steve.

And the way he smiles at Bucky every time he makes a nerdy reference just spawns butterflies in his stomach. It’s the same feeling he gets when he looks at Steve when he’s not looking. The way he snorts when he laughs too much and the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles. The way one eye always blinks a millisecond before the other and the way his eyes twinkle if the light catches them right. The way Steve’s voice cracks sometimes when he’s speaking and the awe in his gaze when they watch movies together.

They’re halfway through Jurassic Park when Bucky looks over at Steve who’s grinning from ear to ear and he realizes he’s falling in love with Captain America.

**

“I’m being discharged tomorrow,” he tells Steve, biting his lip. He’s managed to completely miss the not-sad tone he was going for. 

“Oh,” Steve says in a reasonably similar tone although he’s managed to get a bit more neutral.

“Yeah,” he says and takes a deep breath. He needs to just jump the shark which is probably a reference Steve wouldn’t get. “I’m… I’m going to miss this.”

“Me too,” Steve admits after a few agonizingly long moments of silence. “You’re the first person who really treats me like a person and not uh Captain America, I guess. It’s nice.” 

“I mean, I called you the lovechild of Adonis and Jeff Goldblum the first time I met you so I had nowhere to go but up,” he points out which makes Steve snort.

“Jurassic Park Jeff Goldblum, but not Lost World Jeff Goldblum,” Steve corrects, smirking at Bucky. He sighs, hating his lack of brain-to-mouth filter. “Which I really don’t get, by the way, because Goldblum looks great in that movie.”

“Wait, did you watch Lost World without me? I’m offended, Steven,” Bucky says, but he can’t even fake being offended. He’s just grinning from ear to ear.

“I’m sorry, we can watch the third one together if you want?” Steve offers, looking a little sheepish.

Bucky raises his eyebrows. “Is that your way of asking me out, Mr. Rogers?”

“Maybe,” Steve murmurs with a small smile on his face.

“Then I’d be honored to go on a date with you,” Bucky says with a genuine smile on his face. He reaches out to take Steve’s hand. “We can watch the objectively worst Jurassic Park movie together and maybe have dinner too.”

“I’d like that, I’d really like that,” Steve grins and squeezes his hand. He’s never felt happier.

** **Six Years Later** **

“Will you wear a kilt to our wedding?” Steve asks, reaching out lazily to hold Bucky’s hand. 

“You make it sound like my Grandma didn’t pick out a specific kilt for my wedding when she learned Mom was pregnant just on the chance that it was a boy,” he deadpans, turning his head on the bed to look at Steve who snorts, grinning at him. “The headlines are going to be great for that, Captain America’s paleontologist boyfriend wears a skirt to their wedding.”

“Captain America’s paleontologist _husband_ ,” Steve corrects and pretends to roll his eyes at Bucky.

He grins. “Captain America’s husband. I like the sound of that.”

 

_There’s something almost surreal about what we share together. Like we are connected at the soul. Our spirits entangled. Like two rivers winding alongside one another, sometimes in separate directions, but always towards the ocean._  
_-Beau Taplin_

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)
> 
>  
> 
> come scream with me on [tumblr](https://cosmo-k-i-d.tumblr.com/)  
> 


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